Astrid: The knight of the top lane

Build and Guide Astrid: The knight of the top lane

Cheat Sheet
Skill Build           

Dire Blow > Fearless Charge > Spin Slash 

Recommended Talents           

Flicker, Heal   

Items           

Mantle of Ra, Sonic Boots, Spear of Longinus, The Aegis, Medallion of Troy, Hyoga's Edge 

Arcana           

Onslaught, Assassinate, Skewer   

Introduction
Astrid is a bruiser who excels in fighting short fights due to a shield she gains when she Is missing a small portion of health. Using her ability to deal consistent great area of effect damage and reduce the damage she takes. Astrid fills a position for players who enjoy running directly into the enemy team at all stages of the game. For her team, she becomes a target for enemy players due to her run in and smashes things playstyle. 

Skill Build
Dire Blow > Fearless Charge > Spin Slash 

Dire Blow causes Astrid to power up and becomes immune to all damage for 2 seconds. After 1.5 seconds Astrid swings her sword dealing massive damage. For every 2% of health Astrid is missing, this ability deals 1% more damage. This ability also slows the enemy heroes hit by 50% for 1.5 seconds and stuns them for 1 second if they have more health than Astrid. This ability is great if played right, horrible if played wrong. Your main thing to be aware of when attempting to dive into the enemy team with this ability is how many crowd control effects will hit you. If you try to get the most damage out of this ability by having low health and get stunned instantly. You are more than likely just going to bait yourself to a quick death. Do not be afraid to use this ability with a good amount of health left. The small percentage difference is not going to make much difference in most cases. Whereas dying before you can cast this ability will. 

Fearless Charge dashes Astrid forward, slowing enemies hit by 50% for 1.5 seconds, and reduces targets armor by 30% for 4 seconds. Her next normal attack will be a critical attack and reduce the cooldown of Fearless Charge by 1 second. The reason we level this before Spin Slash even though it does slightly less damage is to reduce its cooldown. Reducing the armor of an enemy by 30% is a huge benefit to any fight in a lane or in team fights. Not to mention the ability can cross terrain and be used to escape enemies. 

Spin Slash is a large area of effect ability that deals moderate damage. Hitting an enemy hero will increase Astrids attack speed by 20%, and 5% extra for any extra enemy heroes hit for 3 seconds. Maxing the number of enemies hit with this late game will really help Astrid maximize her dps. 

Astrid's passive is Bladed Guardian. When Astrid's health drops below 80% we gain a shield that absorbs 450 damage for the next 4 seconds. The passive shield has a cooldown of 24-seconds and will activate again when Astrid takes damage, as long as she is below the 80%. When the shield is active she deals 150 magic damage to nearby enemies. The cooldown is reduced by 3 seconds every time Astrid hits an enemy hero, and 1.5 seconds for minions. 

Recommended Talents
Flicker, Heal   

Flicker 120-second Cooldown: Teleports your hero a short distance         

Flicker is always a great Talent to use. It’s a free short ranged teleport ability that can get you over terrain or towards a position you want to be in instantly. I recommend using this ability and getting good with it, regardless of the hero used, unless you are the jungler.     

Heal 120-second cooldown: You and nearby teammates instantly recover 15% HP and gain 15% movement speed for 2 seconds.   

Heal is a great ability to take in duo lanes and becomes a better talent late game. Since the ability will heal the same regardless of how many teammates are around, it’s a very supportive ability. I still prefer the safety of Flicker, but if you are not a high enough level for Flicker, or are simply terrible at casting this in a direction quickly, take Heal.   

Items
Mantle of Ra, Sonic Boots, Spear of Longinus, The Aegis, Medallion of Troy, Hyoga's Edge 

Level 1 boots should be your first item. 

Mantle of Ra is a great starting item for any melee hero that deals in the area of effect damage. The burn effect of this item with our passives area of effect damage makes for some great additional damage. 

Finish Sonic Boots, the ability to reduce normal attacks is too strong to ignore. 

Spear of Longinus is something I don't see built on many Astrids. I like having the ability to reduce my enemy's armor in the lane, as well as having some bonus cooldown reduction to allow for more charges. 

Aegis is more armor and cooldown reduction. The bonus effect is that it slows enemy heroes when you are hit by them. 

Medallion of Troy is the much-needed magic defense by the late game. As well as adding another shield on top of our passive. 

Hyoga's Edge is a great filler as it adds defense stats and a bit more slows on top of what Aegis was already doing. This item can be built sooner if you are doing well and chasing people down early. 

Arcana
Onslaught, Assassinate, Skewer     

Astrid's early damage can be what makes or breaks a lane. So, every single slot of our Arcana is based on early game damage. You can take something a bit tankier for the purple Arcana if you'd like but I prefer having some movement speed to deal with faster enemy heroes. 

Early Game
Early game will greatly depend on who we are fighting against. When against ranged heroes camp the bushes only coming out if they come within range to charge to. Farm under tower against ranged or anyone who does just a bit too much damage to you. Early game I like to abuse Astrid's passive. Fight until your shield drops, and re-engage when it's up. The bonus health and damage cannot be ignored by most enemies in lane. 

Middle Game
The middle game we have two choices, join our team or split push. Personally, I am a huge fan of split pushing with Astrid. Mantle of Ra and our Spin Slash will quickly clear a lane and allow us to back off before the enemy team can react. Build up gold as quickly as you can, and take those towers. 

Late Game
Late game the team will need us to group a bit more than they did before. Using our ultimate and charge we can easily dive into the enemy team and negate a ton of damage. Just be sure not to blow your ultimate too late that you risk not using it. If you lack a real tank on your team, you may have to play the role of staying near and defending your carries. 

FAQ/Tips
Fearless Charge can cross over terrain easily. 

Do not attempt to hold onto Astrids ultimate too long, if you try to maximize its damage you risk dying before you get a chance to use it. 

Matchups
(Valhein, Easy)   

We've all been in a game where a ranged carry takes the top lane to abuse the range of the melee top laners. However, Astrid's charge gives her the perfect capability of dealing with these players. This can relate to multiple ranged heroes but abusing bushes and charge will make this lane easy. 

(Arthur, Easy) 

Arthur is normally someone who deals extremely well with any melee top laner. He basically looks to get a lead early game to stay relevant late game. If you abuse your passive for the extra health and damage you should have no trouble out damaging an Arthur. 

(Raz, Hard) 

Raz deals a lot of magic damage on short cooldowns. If a Raz plays this to their strength, we will be poked down before we have any chance at a one on one fight. Sit back and dodge skill shots until Raz runs out of mana or wait for a gank. 

(Maloch, Hard) 

Maloch has a bit too much in the damage and health regen department for us to deal with. We might be a more powerful hero later in the game, but as it stands we cannot fight him in a one vs one.